Meredith Marakovits does hundreds of interviews during a typical baseball season on the YES Network for the New York Yankees.

But rarely is a crowd of about 50,000 inside Yankee Stadium hanging on her every word.

Such was the case late Thursday night when Marakovits, a Lehigh Valley native and Central Catholic graduate, got to be the first one to interview Derek Jeter after his game-winning hit provided the perfect ending to his playing career at Yankee Stadium.

"I've had interviews that went over the P.A. system before like after walk-off wins and Mariano Rivera's last game last year," Marakovits said. "But this one felt different. The place erupted when he got that last hit. Could this really happen? And when it actually did, it was so loud in there. It was like a playoff series or World Series atmosphere. It was that loud, that emotional.

"[Jeter] was hugging everybody and I was trying to give him his space. When he finally walked over, I asked him if he was ready. He nodded 'yes.' And at that moment, it felt like the place went totally silent because they really were hanging on every word. They wanted to hear from the guy. It was very different."

What followed were Jeter's poignant comments talking about how close he was to crying so many times in his final night in pinstripes.

He also talked about how much of a struggle it was to get through the game.

"I was a mess," he said.

But he also got in several 'thank yous' to the Yankee fans in what was his final address to them as a player inside the stadium he has called home since 1996.

Marakovits, completing her third season with YES after working as the 76ers sideline reporter for Comcast SportsNet, was surprised Jeter talked about crying.

"This year, especially toward the end of the year, he has been opening up a little more and letting people in," Marakovits said. "But that's really never been his personality. And you saw in the interview that he was still fighting back tears there, especially the second or third time he mentioned the fans."

Marakovits also talked to Rivera after talking to Jeter.

"Mariano said it was just typical Derek," Marakovits said. "To have that double in his first at-bat on a ball that nearly went out and would have been out in a lot of other parks was something special.

"Had it ended with the Yankees holding on to the lead in the top of the ninth, it would have been a great night. But with them losing the lead and [Jeter] getting one more chance to bat was just something special. It all worked out perfectly. How it played out certainly changed how I approached the postgame interview."

Marakovits was glad she had the opportunity to be the first one to talk to Jeter in that situation.

"I was hoping it would work out that way," she said. "You generally have to go through a PR person and that PR person wrangles with the athlete to bring him over. In this situation, he just walked right over to me. No one told him to go there. No one said he had to this or that interview now. He just knew it was time and I was happy to be the one who got to do the interview. It was a cool moment."

After being apart of the touching farewell to Rivera at Yankee Stadium last season, one that ranked as one of the best sports moments of the entire year, Marakovits wasn't sure she'd ever to get experience such a dramatic, emotional exit again.

"You have World Series wins, playoff wins and big wins during the season, but this was more historical … something people will always remember," she said. "I really thought after Mariano's last game that I would not be a part of something like that again. But what happened Thursday night was just unbelievable.

"CC Sabathia said in the clubhouse after the game that Derek's life is like a movie and that game ended like a movie. Things just don't usually happen like that."

Marakovits wasn't thinking about her place in history as the one who interviewed Jeter first after his final hit.

"It all kind of happened so fast," she said. "In the eighth inning, I was standing there and thinking about where I wanted to go with the interview and what I wanted to say, what would be appropriate. I don't like to follow a script, but I wanted to have an idea because it was the last interview for him at Yankee Stadium and I didn't want to screw it up.

"But then when he got that hit, I forgot about everything and it was just Derek and I. It wasn't like any other postgame interview. But in that moment, I wasn't thinking about how many people were watching or the fact that it would be played by 100 media outlets or whatever. It was my job and I wanted to do it well. I was hoping to give the people what they wanted to hear from Derek Jeter in that moment. It wasn't until after it was over when I received so many text messages and emails that I realized that, wow, people were really paying attention to that one."

Marakovits will be in Boston throughout the weekend for the Yankees final series of the season against the Red Sox, and while that will also be emotional, it should prove to be an almost impossible act to follow.

"There's a part of Derek who would like to end it after what happened [Thursday night], but there's also a part of him who feels responsible to the fans and the people who are coming to these games," Marakovits said.

"The final game could be emotional, especially the postgame press conference. But I think the best moment happened at Yankee Stadium. That was the tough moment. If he could circle one on his calendar, that would be the one that's most special."